Northern Black Forest

The Northern Black Forest (German: Nordschwarzwald) refers to the northern third of the Black Forest in Germany or, less commonly today, to the northern half of this mountain region.

The Northern Black Forest is bounded in the north by a line from Karlsruhe to Pforzheim and, in the south, by a line running from the Rench valley to Freudenstadt. Its northern boundary largely coincides with the emergence of the extensively forested bunter sandstone strata from the arable region of the Kraichgau; its southern boundary with the Central Black Forest (or, in the case of a bipartite division, the Southern Black Forest) varies depending on the definition or natural regional division used (see also Black Forest). Earlier the Northern Black Forest was the entire northern half of the mountain range as far as the line of the Kinzig valley, which divides the Black Forest east of Lahr. To the west it is bounded by the Upper Rhine Plain, to the east by the Gäu landscapes.

The Northern Black Forest is not the same as the spatial-planning region of Northern Black Forest, which covers the eastern area.

The Northern Black Forest, with its rather angular, in places trapezoidally-shaped summits, rises above the Rhine Plain by more than 1,000 m. By contrast its eastern slopes descend gradually and there is less of a height difference with its neighbouring regions. Its highest peak is the Hornisgrinde at 1,163 m above sea level (NHN). Woods cover on average 73% of the whole land area and make the Northern Black Forest the most cohesive forested part of the Black Forest, but there are also extensive areas of so-called Grinden, treeless, wet heaths, on its highland slopes. Geologically the dominant rock of the Northern Black Forest is bunter sandstone, although in the deeply incised west its gneiss bedrock reaches the surface. Granites (e.g. Forbach granite) and porphyries have intruded forming crags and tors. The highland regions of the Northern Black Forest are among the regions of the German Central Uplands with the heaviest rainfall (up to 2,200 mm per annum). Its most important rivers are the Murg, Nagold, Enz, Alb, Acher, Rench, Oos and the upper reaches of the Wolf.

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